The Time Inbetween
by MadMooMe
Summary: What happened before Charlie found Miles in that bar in Chicago? How did he leave the Militia after trying to kill his best friend?
1. Chapter 1

The UK is only halfway through season one so the points in this story may by now already have been answered within the show. I do not own any of the characters in Revolution but wouldn't mind owning a couple of the actors.

1.

The situations in which Miles Matheson had no clue what to do could be counted on one hand. As a rule the General rarely had a thought out plan but pretty much always knew how to handle things when the time came. Combat skills and fancy sword play came in handy but what had got Miles to his current position in the world was that he was fast-thinking and unafraid. These were not traits he had picked up during his time in the armed forces. He was simply born that way.

The situation he currently found himself in was making the list of times he was _not _in control. In fact this situation was _topping_ that very short list . His feet were moving at a swift pace down the streets of Philadelphia. His tall lean build and perma-scowl expression radiated business as usual to any passer-by brave enough to look in his direction but his head usually such a calm structured place currently resembled a box of fireworks. Each rational thought exploding out into incontrollable directions with no chance of reeling them back in.

The reason for his rapid march was 100 metres ahead. Nora stood chatting to a couple of enlisted men. He watched as they seem to share a joke and seeing that beautiful smile of hers reminded him how rarely he's seen it. She was such a tough and strong little thing and he supposed hanging around with him as much as she did hadn't offer much in the way of laughs. The two young soldiers posture quickly changed from casual ease to respectful fear on seeing 'The General' approaching. His 6'2" stance and impassive stare conveyed the stuff of legend as he passed the recruits. Without stopping Miles pointed to Nora.

"You! With me now!" it was an order not a request and Nora quickly fell into step behind him as he headed towards the edge of town.

Miles' pace was beyond quick and Nora found herself jogging to keep up with him. A glimpse of his face revealed the usual detached expression but Nora had known Miles long enough to spot the subtle changing in his appearance and something was wrong.

"Tell me!" she whispered as Miles seem to increase his pace further

He glanced over to her and then quickly away struggling to keep his composure. Silence followed for another good minute. Miles had always been a man of few words but right now that silence was just him desperately trying to calm himself enough to get a sentence out.

"We're leaving and we can never come back" he eventually said

"What did you do?" she no longer whispered but accused

"I…I." he couldn't even say it. His brow furrowed as though the words caused him physical pain. He looked over at her, at those big dark brown eyes that waited for his reply

"I've just tried to kill him"

Nora stopped walking with shock, it was obvious that he was referring to his best friend Bass Monroe. They had spend many a month discussing an assassination of that particular Militia Leader but those discussions covered a very detailed plan that considered every eventuality and involved waiting for the right time to strike. This most certainly had not been agreed as the right time.

Miles desperate to keep moving pulled Nora forward. Bass would come round any minute and then they would come for him. She allowed him to pull her along for a short time. Nora's silence now dominated the conversation and he waited for her to come to terms with his actions.

"What do you mean by tried?" she asked and was immediately greeted by Miles' signature eye rolling signifying that their current 'get out of dodge' move was evidence enough that he hadn't succeeded. He watched the colour drain from her face as they cleared through a check point leaving the walled city behind and headed into the forests. The sun had finally set and the cover of nightfall was a blessing. Within no time they could hear the voices of a search party drifting through the wind.

They walked all night keeping mostly to the woods. Only stopping to rest a couple of hours before dawn in a shallow trench they found amidst a thick copse of trees. Miles took watch unable to find peace within the train wrecked brain of his. He took a minute to look down at Nora's peaceful form. She had become important to him. They were friends and occasionally more than that but most importantly she had his trust, something he offered to virtually no one else. In Miles' opinion you could never be sure that someone wasn't going to stab you in the back someplace down the line.

Nora was his exception. He had confided in her many times over recent years. She alone saw the despair he felt in slowly losing his best friend over to the dark side of power and greed. She had watched the pain of guilt consume Miles for his actions on steering Bass in that direction. Miles Matheson had done terrible things and Nora had heard about them all, but for some reason she still liked him and Miles in return had come to care for her deeply.

There had only been one other women he'd ever felt anything for and that was Rachel. The mere mention of her name brought the single image of her dead body hammering to the front of his mind. He uncontrollably lurched forward, pounded his fists in to the mossy earth to try and stifle the emotional pain he felt. The second he had seen her lifeless body he knew it wasn't accidental, Bass had killed her and at that point a switch flipped in Miles' head. He had heard people mention about a red mist that appeared during bouts of anger but this was more of a red fog. A thick red fog of blood and vengeance was all Miles could see.

He had acted instantly implicating Jim Heron in his ill thought out plan to kill his best friend. But when it came down to it, he found he couldn't pull the trigger and now because of that he was knelt in a trench running for his life with an exhausted beautiful women as his side.

Nora was passionate, sexy and uncomplicated. Rachel had been serious, very complex and most importantly his brother's wife. A fire deep within Miles once burned for Rachel that over the years had been forced down to simmering embers and no matter how wrong those feelings had been for the mother of Ben's children those embers would never be fully extinguished.

The pain of loss suddenly hit hard and Miles let out a reluctant anger filled sob. Nora awoke from the sound and he looked down to her. She know nothing of his history with Rachel, not even Bass knew that. Although his recent actions may have him be wondering if there was something more than sisterly affection he had felt for her. Miles had acted very much out of character and managed to drag Nora into it all with him. He had her loyalty and knew she would follow him to the gates of hell. It was only at the moment that he realised that could well be where they were heading and he couldn't let that happen.

Looking down at those beautiful lips of hers Miles pulled Nora into an embrace. His mouth upon hers was not soft or gentle but intense and filled with emotion. When they finally parted Nora had received the message loud and clear.

"Your leaving me?" she asked looking up to a man who was closer to tears than she had ever seen him

"I'm sorry Nora, I'm so sorry" was all Miles could get out as he saw the hurt on her face.

"But I thought you brought me here to be with you"

Miles shook his head "If you'd stayed in the city Bass would have used you to bring me back"

"So I'm here just because you didn't want Monroe to torture me for information on the assassination attempt. Then what about Jim and the others who knew, why aren't they here too?" Nora asked

That was when Miles realised that Nora had no idea just how much she meant to him. He couldn't care less who knew about the assassination attempt. He didn't care about the others who were in on the plan or what happened to them. A long time ago Miles had taught Bass that if there was something or someone you needed that a good hostage worked every time. And Bass knew that the only good hostage he could use to ensure Miles would come back to face him was Nora.

He stood up to see the sky changing, a new day was coming and if she didn't go now the Militia would be hot on their tails in broad daylight. Miles pulled her up to her feet

"If you go West there's a rebel camp not far, get what you need and then keep moving, go find your sister or something"

Nora just stood not quite believing what he was saying. She couldn't just leave him, she was in love with him. Her expression said it all

"I'm not asking you Nora. This is what's happening. Bass wants my head and he sure as hell isn't going to get you in the cross fire. He doesn't want information from you, he will just want to hurt you because he knows that's the fastest way to bring me back" he said

"So we stay together and fight them" Nora almost begged but Miles shook his head.

"I'm going to be on the run for a while Nora, they'll be looking for the two of us together, it's safer if you leave now. I'll get them coming in my direction to give you a better chance" he pulled out a gun and gave it to Nora. He hadn't used it in years. It only have four bullets left in it but would help Nora if the worst came to the worst.

She took it off him and stepped away, Miles felt his stomach turn , the small distance between them already felt a mile wide and the expression she now wore had become hard and hateful. He wanted to walk her to the rebel camp but they both knew that his face around those parts was too recognisable and he would be lynched on sight. In the end she didn't say goodbye or go in for one last hug, Nora just turned, walked West and out of his life.

Miles stood and watched until he could no longer see her then turned himself a back to the woods and headed East. The weight of the world seem suddenly to push down as he walked. Within twenty four hours he had lost Rachel, Bass and Nora. Any tears that previously remained unseen now fell as rivers down his face. There was one more person he needed to see and he was in all likeliness about to loss them too.

It was a long road ahead and he walked it slowly, he may have lost everyone he cared about but he would survive it, after all he was Mile Matheson, still fast thinking and unafraid.

And he asked himself the question. If General Matheson cried in the woods and there was no one around to see it, did it actually happen?


	2. Chapter 2

Ben Matheson stood in the once paved street of the settlement. He heaved a plank of wood that resembled part of a headboard on to a pile of similar looking furniture rejects. This was the best they could find in which to construct a new hen house. The power may have stopped working but small animal predators had not and the original design for their chicken hut had not withstood the force of the hungry night-time pests.

It was especially hot and the manual labour that was once rare to the scientist was now common practice in order to survive. He wiped the sweat from his brow and looked out to the distance while he rested from the heat.

Taking a sip of water from a canteen Ben saw something move beyond the edge of the village. It disappeared behind an abandoned bus. A very fleeting thought that the racoons had returned in daylight passed through his mind but deep down he knew that what he had actually seen was a hell of a lot more dangerous than a large rodent.

"Jack, I need a rest, I'm going to go out and get some water" he announced to another villager who had just appeared from one of the houses with more wood. Jack nodded his acceptance of the perfectly natural request. Ben returned to the house and emerged a short time later with a harness holding a dozen empty bottles.

Miles sat exhausted against the abandoned bus, heat radiating from the metal sidings. It had taken over a month to get there, travelling mainly by foot but also doubling back after directing the Militia away from Nora as he promised.

He had been watching his brother for over an hour looking at the home he had made for himself. It looked peaceful, serene and simple. Some kids ran around the ruins as though it was a playground, the occasional laugh from them carried on the wind in his direction. Miles wondered if any of them were his niece and nephew but it had been so long since he had seen them he didn't even know how old they would now be.

When Ben finally reached his location Miles pulled himself to his feet and came face to face with his brother. They looked at each other for a moment for it had been sometime since that had last met. Both looked tired and weary from a post-power world. Both showed grey within unshaven stubble but there the similarities stopped. They were brothers and loved each other as family should but they had never been close friends, their personalities were too different for that. Both had a decent amount of intelligence but they used it for different things. Ben had looked for what he could get out of science and Miles had looked at what he could get for himself.

"What do you want Miles?" Ben asked with a slight shake to his voice as he dropped the empty bottles to the ground. The fear in his voice almost killed Miles to see. His own brother who he had loved all his life, that had come to see him and Bass off when they did their first tour of Afghanistan, who had comforted him when he broke an arm back in middle school was now scared of him.

"I'm not here to bring you in Ben" he said assuming that would be Ben's first thought. That time had been and gone now. Bass had become a much bigger problem than turning the power back on. He looked into his brothers eyes who looked back with no clue as to why Miles was there. He had never been one for small talk so he just came out with it.

" I came to tell you…she's dead" the words hung in the air for a eternity.

Then were eventually returned with a punch to the face that brought Miles to his knees. He hadn't seen it coming, the month long trip to get there, the sleeping rough and hunger for many a missed meal had taken it's toll on Miles. The first hit may have been a surprise but the second wasn't, he saw it from a mile away but made no effort to stop it. The taste of blood in his mouth seemed some small penitence for the pain he had caused his family. He willed for Ben to hit him again but instead of a fist, the anger found Ben's voice.

"You were supposed to protect her, Miles" he bellowed no longer worried if the settlement could hear.

Miles was up on his feet in a second. The words that had left his brothers mouth seem to reignite some fight within himself and for minute he didn't care about the feeling of loss Ben was going through.

"Protect her!, You should never have let her go in the first place, why didn't you stop her"

Ben struggled to fight the tears in his eyes but Miles demanded an answer

"She convinced me…she convinced me it was for the best, that she could help you and…."

"Convinced you! What could she have possibly said that would mean you would let her come to Bass and Me, What would make you think that 'Butcher of Baltimore' would protect her?" Miles spat the last words out remembering Rachel quoting how horrified her and Ben had been to discover the things he had done. Ben looked up frantically wiping his eyes losing the will to continue the conversation as the full realisation that he would never see his wife again took precedence. His voice was a lot softer when he spoke again

"She left here in hope you'd stop looking for me and also to protect our kids. She went because she was sure you wouldn't hurt her when you realised she wasn't going to tell you anything useful but mainly she went because she thought she could save you Miles"

"Save me?". Miles repeated not realising he had said it out loud and then crouched on the floor next to where his brother had buried his head in his hands.

"You're family, and we love you. We believed we could bring you back from this bloody crusade you've been on"

He realised then that in some ways the plan had worked, it had been Rachel's arrival at the Militia 3 years ago when things between him and Bass had started to change. Her hurtful comments allowed him to look at himself and look at the world he had created around him . He saw clearly the terrible roads they were heading down but the plan hadn't worked completely. Her death was too much to bare, he had lost his desire to fight and he didn't care what happened now. He was out of it all and so was she.

He looked over at his brother one last time wanting to say sorry, but how could something that small cover the amount of pain he had caused.

"I going to stay in the city. If you need me, come find me there" He stood up and took a step back.

"I've left the Militia Ben, but they are coming for me. If they come to get you, just tell them where I am. I'll be their priority and then you get the kids and run" It was the best he could offer his brother who couldn't even bring himself to look up at him. Miles waited a moment longer then started to walk way

"Miles!" Ben called out, his brother slowed his pace but didn't stop

"How did she die?" the question came out as a croak as though he wasn't sure he actually wanted the answer.

Miles didn't look back he just shook his head and called over his shoulder

"She died because I wasn't there to protect her" he replied and then disappeared out of sight.

Miles Matheson was no longer a General but he found he was still able command people when needs must. After a while in the city he had managed to commandeer himself a bar. A place that perfectly fit his needs. It was dark and seedy and allowed him to slowly drink away any bad thoughts that entered his head. But it was also a hub for information and he found through his specialised skills he could keep abreast of events in the outside world whilst still staying hidden. He rarely gave his real name to anyone and those that sneaked through and recognised him didn't get the chance to tell anyone else.

Through a network of trusty patrons he knew that Ben was safe, he knew what Bass and the Militia was up to and he knew roughly were Nora was hiding out.

Things stayed that way for a good long while right up until a pretty young girl walked into the bar to tell him his brother was dead.


End file.
